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for three years then he went up indeed to Jerusalem, but staid only fifteen days, and saw none of the apostles but Peter and John the Lord's brother. Fourteen years after this he went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with him: and hear what he says: "I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that Gospel which I preached among the Gentiles; and when I saw," says he, "that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was committed unto Peter; for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles; and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right-hand of fellowship: that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." And the Apostle, instead of complaining of this, rejoiced in it: "I am the Apostle of the Gentiles," says he; "I magnify mine office." The Jews in general, having been the peculiar people of God, were exceedingly jealous of the extension of their privileges to others. It was supposed in early ecclesiastical history, that for the announcement of this, Isaiah was sawn asunder. However that may be the Apostle tells us, that his announcement of it was an instance of great moral heroism: "Isaiah is very bold, and says, I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a people that was not called by my name."

You find that even the minds of our Lord's own immediate disciples were beclouded by this prejudice: and you will see that it required a miracle to deliver the mind of the Apostle Peter from this tendency. But it was otherwise with Paul, though a Jew from the very beginning. O what a noble soul had he! He never wished to monopolize any thing, but rejoiced in proportion as it became common and general: "Would God," said he before Agrippa, "that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, were not almost but altogether such as I am, except these bonds." When he tells Timothy that there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge would give him at that day; it delighted him to think, that his head would not sparkle alone, but that the heads of others would be equally adorned with the same crown: "And not to me only," says he, "but to all them also that love his appearing."

Now this was always designed to be the case from the beginning; that after a while the partition wall should be thrown down; and that the Gentiles should become heirs of the same body, and partakers of the promise of Christ by the Gospel. While without Christ, they had been strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, and aliens from the covenant of promise. Living without hope and without God in the world, they had been enveloped in ignorance, darkness, idolatry, superstition, vice, and wretchedness. They all lie, as John expresses it, "in the devil:""The whole world," says he, "lieth in wickedness"—the wicked one. But it was said, "In his name shall the Gentiles trust to him shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious." Simeon was enabled to perceive this when he embraced the infant Messiah, and blessed God that he had seen his salvation which was 66 prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles," as well as "the glory of his people Israel." The Jews had despised them: considering themselves children, they always called them dogs: viewing themselves as citizens, they considered them as only out

casts.

"But," says our Saviour, "go ye out into the highways and hedges, and bring in the poor, and the maimed, and the halt and the blind." What goodness was here!

"Let not conscience make you linger;

Nor of fitness fondly dream."

Are you more unworthy than these Gentiles to whom were sent the unsearchable riches of Christ?

And here you see in the Apostle's case, the nature of the Christian dispensation. You will observe that the Christian dispensation did not properly commence till the death of Christ. Accordingly during his abode on earth he was the minister of the circumcision only. And when he sent forth the apostles and the seventy, he said, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles: and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But upon his resurrection from the dead, when this glorious economy had actually commenced, his language and his commission was conformable to it: then said he to them, "Go into all the world, and teach the Gospel to every creature: teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." "And they went forth," we are told, “preaching every where that men should repent."

There is nothing, therefore, in the Christian dispensation like that of Judaism. Judaism was of divine original; but then it was exclusive; it was confined, and it was necessarily confined, to a particular nation. In the nature of the case it never could have become a universal religion. How could all the males in all the countries of the earth, have repaired three times a year to Jerusalem, to appear before the Lord, and to worship there?

"But we have no such lengths to go,

Nor wander far abroad;

Where'er the saints assemble now,

There is a house for God."

Christianity has no localities: our Saviour said to the woman, "The hour cometh, yea now is, when neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem (exclusively) shall men worship the Father; but all shall worship him in spirit and in truth. The Gospel therefore overlooks every thing that is external and adventitious in men's condition, and regards them as men only. Whatever be their colour, whatever their condition, whatever their country, whatever their character, it regards them in those exigencies which are common to every individual of the human race. It finds every individual guilty, and it brings forgiving mercy; it finds every individual depraved, and brings sanctifying grace. It finds every individual capable and destined to live for ever; and turns this, which would otherwise have been a curse, into a blessing, by converting it into light and immortality.

We observe also, that in this part of the subject we are peculiarly interested. Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles; that is, he was our Apostle. We, you know, were once Gentiles, led away by dumb idols. What were your forefathers when Paul was called by grace? A number of painted, naked savages, shouting about here in the woods, and enslaved by the most absurd and cruel superstitions At what time, and in what manner, the Gospel first came to the Gentiles here, we cannot accurately determine; but at an early period it came :

and it has continued, notwithstanding all our national privations, among us ever since and it has had a series of finer and more glorious triumphs than in any country under heaven.

Lastly, observe what he says of his SUBJECT. "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ :" the model after which all ministers should be conformed: all of us should be able to make use of the same language with them. They could say, "We preach not heathen virtues, not Jewish economies, not moral systems, not worldly politics, not church discipline, not the difference in forms and modes of worship: we have a nobler theme. We leave nature to the philosophers: our philosophy is to know "God manifest in the flesh." We leave the planets to astronomers: our astronomy is to teach people to adore "the bright and morning Star;" to adore "the Sun of Righteousness," rising with healing under his wings. We leave geometry to the mathematicians; our geometry is to teach people "to comprehend with all saints, what is the height, and depth, and length, and breadth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge:" our arithmetic, to teach men "so to number their days, as to apply their hearts unto wisdom." We leave criticism and language to the rhetoricians, concerned only to be skilled in the language of Canaan, and to speak according to the living oracles of God. "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord:" "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them which are called both Jew and Greek, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." This is the bread of life, the life of the soul: and though there may be some that despise it, as the Jews of old despised the heavenly manna, calling it, "this light bread," yet this is the bread that satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness; and every partaker of it, every one that has tasted that the Lord is gracious, will exclaim, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." What are these unsearchable riches of Christ? They do not intend so much his attributes and possessions as God, as his mediatorial resources and treasures. The whole dispensation of the Spirit is lodged in his hands: "For in him it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell"-pardon, peace, knowledge, strength, grace, and glory. There is an abundance of these riches in him; they are unsearchable as they are found in him. The world has its riches, but they are easily comprehended: and Solomon summed them all up when he said, "Vanity of vanities; vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity." All the wealth of the world, all the world calls good and great, is infinitely inferior to mind. I say, to mind. The riches of the Saviour are for the soul, and for eternity: they are therefore invisible, as to the senses; and they are boundless too; so that no creature in heaven or earth can ever fully explore them. Angels, it is true, desire to look into these things; and will always be looking into them, but never see the bottom: how then is it to be supposed that any mortal can ever worthily imagine the value of that blood which cleanseth from all sin; the perfection of that righteousness which can justify the ungodly, and give him a title to eternal life; that peace which " passeth all understanding;" that joy which is "unspeakable and full of glory;" that love which passeth knowledge;" that power that is able to do for us exceedingly abundant, above all that we can ask or think?" Well may the Apostle call

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these, "the unsearchable riches of Christ."

And, to close, it should rejoice you to know, that He is in the possession of such unsearchable riches. It should gladden you to learn this on his own account; for he is infinitely worthy. And is there a Christian here this

evening, whose heart does not exclaim,

"Let Him be crowned with majesty,

Who bowed his head to death;
And be his honour sounded high,

By all things that have breath."

Christian, do not you rejoice to think, that He, your dear Lord and Saviour, who was once so poor as not to have where to lay his head, has now dwelling in him "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" has in his possession, and at his disposal, all the treasures of nature and grace, and providence and glory?

And you should rejoice in the behalf of others too. When many rise in the world, and acquire resources, who is the better for them? Rather they oppress, and peel, and spoil, and curse. When many of your fellow-creatures gain wealth, they immediately hoard it: who is the better for it? How seldom you find those who have large affluence, possessing the will to do good with it! But Olet us rejoice that these unsearchable riches belong to One

do

"Whose heart is made of tenderness,

Whose bowels melt with love."

Let us rejoice to think, therefore, that there are in him the resources of pity, the resources of grace.

To you is the word of this salvation sent. Do you value the preaching of it? Can any one of you imagine now, that these unsearchable riches are published among you from Sabbath to Sabbath, only to amuse you-only that you may give them a hearing? Is it enough to hear them? You may hear, and believe, and wonder, and perish. And if you derive no advantage from the dispensation, the dispensation itself will become a curse; and "the savour of life unto life" will be turned into "the savour of death unto death." Happy are those who are convinced of their spiritual need; who begin to be in want; who are sensible that they are unable to relieve their own exigences, and that creatures can never relieve them; and so be prepared to say with Newton,

"The help of men and angels joined

Can never reach my case;
Nor can I hope relief to gain,

But in that boundless grace."

Tell this joy to Him, who has unsearchable riches, with confidence. Enlarge your desires and your hopes. Be not satisfied to obtain from him mere relief: the Apostle tells us, that such was the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, "that though he was rich, yet, for our sakes, he became poor, that we through his poverty"-might be relieved? No-but "that we through his poverty might be rich:" and therefore "ask and receive, that your joy may be full."

And, finally, how blessed are they who are one with their Saviour! You may judge of your safety by His safety-your honour by His honour-your wealth by His riches. All he hath is yours; for "he that hath the Son hath life." You may be poor in this world ; but 66 you are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom;" you may have nothing, but you "possess all things." Amen.

THE EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS.

REV. H. BLUNT, A.M.

TRINITY CHURCH, CHELSEA, MARCH 8, 1835.

"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."-REVELATION, ii. 17.

In the last discourse we contemplated the Church of Christ during one of the most interesting periods that it has ever known, namely, during those peculiarly trying centuries when its members were poor in this world's advantages, but rich unto God: "I know thy poverty; but thou art rich." They were to endure the ten days of tribulation under their pagan persecutors, and, being found faithful unto death, to wear the crown of life. This state of apparent depression, but of real prosperity, continued until the three first centuries had passed away, and the religion of the Redeemer began to emerge from its obscurity; to be patronised by the great and noble; to have princes among its proselytes, and Constantine, the Emperor of the Roman world, as its acknowledged head. As it too often is with individuals, so it is with the Church at large; the warm and sunny day draws out the vapours. Christians who in the preceding age had been able to rejoice in their poverty and tribulation, and even to be thankful at the time it was given-not only to believe, but also to suffer, for the name of Christ-now became anxious only for this world's wealth and advantages; so that instead of the holy, self-denying lives of the early converts, were to be seen the sensual habits of the mere worldling, in the garb, and under the title, of Christianity.

It is thus, then, that we believe the Church of Pergamos to have been the type and the representative of professing Christians; and the words addressed nominally to her were peculiarly appropriate to the great body of the Christian Church, from the days of Constantine until the period when the Popes first began to assume temporal power; and by their usurpation, enormities, and ungodly lives, gave (as we shall see in the next place) an entirely new character to the Christian world.

In our last discourse we remarked how peculiarly appropriate the preface was to the instruction and warning that were to follow. Observe the same beauty and propriety in the epistle which comes before us this day. "To the angel of the Church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath a sharp sword with two edges." When our Lord was about to use only the language of commendation and encouragement, he refers only to those of his attributes from which encouragement and comfort could be deduced-his eternity and all-sufficiency. In his present Epistle, so full of reprehension, he describes

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